Wednesday, September 4, 2013

It's Elementary

What a difference 15 years makes! Today was my first day back teaching 1st and 2nd grade in 15 years. What a sight it was to see smiling faces,bows in the hair,hugs and yes tears! These little ones are sooo stinking adorable! I have never seen so many little people walking the halls all day trying to get procedures done in my life!
Our day started right from the get go..I dove right into Whole Brain Teaching. My class of 6 loved it..giggles throughout the day especially when I was changing my voice when I said, "Class!" They actually did very well turning and "teaching" each other. I think this might work. By the end of the day they had the rules down with the gestures...now hopefully they will remember tomorrow when we review.:)
We also read Wemberly Worried. The class talked about what worries them. One little guy mentioned drowning...my heart dropped a bit. They even made a Wemberly to go along with their writing. I bought the activities from Wendy over at

in her new TPT shop. Each Wemberly was different from the other....but they still turned out cute. :)

Another Shared Reading was Have You Filled a Bucket. We talked about being Bucket Fillers and Bucket Dippers. I am hoping to see little slips of paper in their buckets..kind words make for a happy heart.

After we had Monkey Cupcakes for the occasion I pulled out 3 tubes of Crest. We started discussing what it is like to be a Scientist. So working in partners I started saying mean things. Each time I said something negative the class had to decide if it was a nice thing to say. If it wasn't their little lab partner had to squeeze the tube. eventually we had paper plates covered in toothpaste. I then asked the lab partner to take their spoon and spoon the toothpaste back into the tube. Needless to say that didn't work! So I explained that once your words are out of your mouth you can never put them back in. Words can make a person feel good or make them feel sad. This school year we need to remember to say kind things to each other.

I did other things throughout the day...like forget to do lunch count..passed my class in the hall after specials without realizing it as I was trying to be on time to pick them up! Oh..and I never did eat lunch!

On a final note a student said to me, "Mrs. Teise how old are you? 20?"..he gets an A for the year!